


Bystander Syndrome

by Dimensional13



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (Feel free to project onto Narrator or imagine them as an OC of yours), Gen, More characters to be added later, Post-Pacifist Route, Unnamed Narrator has no defined gender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-04-27 14:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5052094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dimensional13/pseuds/Dimensional13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been four years since monsterkind was freed from the underground and started living on the surface, alongside humanity. </p><p>A story about a nameless narrator, who’s been only observing everything from the sidelines in the past few years, their journey for friendship, their desire to finally break out of their own shell and their DETERMINATION to gain a new perspective on this new world. And maybe... they may find out that the universe has something bigger planned for them... Bigger than they've could've possibly imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Four Years

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Dimensional13, the writer of this fic, here! Oh boy, this is my very first fic in like… a year... And my last fic was cancelled very early because I was losing interest, heh… (Don’t worry, I am adamant on finishing this though!) And this is like, my second fic ever (I am more of the original-stories kind of guy)… I hope you guys like it anyways! Bystander Syndrome is told from the perspective of a nameless protagonist of ambiguous age and gender. Feel free to think of them as you, feel free to project an OC of yours on them or think of them as a new entity altogether! I just hope you have fun reading! (Oh and… Fair warning: My Native language is German, not English, so sorry if I may make some grammatical errors or typos… they just kinda happen. Feel free to correct me anytime!)

How long has it been now? Four years?... Yes, four years. Around four years ago, monsters returned to the surface. When it first made it on the news, I first thought it was a belated April-fool’s joke. Or maybe someone working at the News Station saw a guy in a costume, freaked out, made a story out of it and snuck it past their boss. However, it soon became apparent that it was neither a joke, nor the brainchild of a paranoid journalist.

I wasn’t sure how to feel at first. Nobody was, really. It was weird to suddenly have an entire new, sapient and sentient species roaming the Earth, especially one that worked so differently in comparison to humans. And the confirmation that souls and magic are indeed things that exist was a punch to the gut for many people. It also was quite shocking to find out that there was an entire war between humans and monsters going on, centuries ago, that simply… disappeared from history.

The months after the sudden appearance of monsters were… weird, to say the least. Society changed ever so slightly. Due to their appearance, the occasional anti-monster hate group started to pop out of the earth and disappeared every now and then… I only observed everything from the sidelines.

Nothing changed all too much for me. Sure, there were more types of people now and some looked kind of weird, but that was totally okay. And hate groups… well, screw them. I’ve experienced enough science-fiction and fantasy stories with similar premises and was smart enough to not to turn into such a hateful prick who hates on everything and everyone that wasn’t like me.

Many people had similar thoughts like me, so most hate groups died after only a few months of existence; which is good. Ironic that anti-monster hate groups tended to disappear so quickly while racist human hate groups tended to last, huh?... Well, most people were still very wary of the monsters around them, despite this. Some people thought this whole thing was cool and exciting though. I can understand why, but I myself rather stayed out of this whole monster thing. This whole issue seemed a little bit too complicated for me.

The next four years were rather uneventful. I went to school, lived my normal life, hung out with friends, and played video games… no biggie. Sure, there were monsters now, but that didn’t change much. Humans and monsters usually tended to keep to themselves anyway, so I never really got to interact with one myself, aside the occasional “Sorry” when accidentally bumping into one or “Have a nice day” when having small talk with a cashier. I always thought it maybe would’ve been cool to have a magical monster buddy, but also at the same time never really felt like it to act upon this idea…

…Well, at least until this day.

It was a nice, cloudless, sunny day mid-June. I was going home from School, which would be out for summer in a few weeks. I really was in the mood for some Fries, so I decided to go visit a fast food place first, before going home.

I kind of was torn between the place where I usually go, which was located pretty far away from my bus stop and a monster place called Grillby’s, which had a bus stop right next to it. However, I had monster food before… It was tasty for sure, but… not very filling. It just kind of… instantly becomes energy after gulping it down, due to it being mostly magic. Not a very satisfying experience.

After thinking about my options for a moment, I decided to go to the monster place. I had a slightly stressful day today, having taken my last exam before summer, and wanted to go home as quickly as possible, so…

As I entered I was greeted by the sight of a pretty dark room and several monsters; some smoking, a few drinking, a few playing poker and some just hanging out. A good bunch of them seemed to be dog-like. A monster that was almost entirely made of fire was working behind the counter. I didn’t mind much about them doing their thing but felt as I was sticking out like a sore thumb; I was the only human here and it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

I took a few steps forward, wondering whether or not I should probably leave. Just in that moment, the door behind me opened and the shop door ball rang.

Little did I know that this would be the start of something equal parts incredible and unbelievable.


	2. Humerus Jokes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go, Chapter 2! Just a quick disclaimer; Yeah, gotta tell you that: Narrator goes to school and lives with their parents. However, feel free to guess which kind of school (High School, College etc.). I mean, it’s possible to go to college while staying at one’s parent’s, right…? Yeah sorry, I myself don’t have much… experience with the American school system, so I vaguely write from my own experiences from the German school system. Which is vastly different. Anyways, you’re not here for my entire life’s story, so here’s Chapter 2! Enjoy!

Welp, there went my escape route. When I turned around, I saw that a skeleton monster just came in. He was pretty short and looked a bit chubby… No Idea how that was even possible, him being a skeleton and all.

He had this big smile plastered all over his skull… err, face… whatever. Like, I knew he was a skeleton but that definitely was a giant smile. He was wearing a thick blue jacket, way too thick for this season with a white shirt underneath, dark blue pants and it seemed like he was too lazy to take off his house slippers when going outside today.

“hey, grillbz. back for lunch. why don’t you get me something ready, i’m basically skin and BONES!” he said, obviously to the monster behind the counter. Some of the monsters in the place laughed at his pun and I swear I heard a rim shot in the back of my head. He seemed to be a regular around here. He was about to go towards the counter until… he took notice of me, stopped dead in his tracks and looked me straight into the eyes. He seemed to be mildly surprised. “…a human? well, that’s new...” he said quietly to himself. However, it was clear enough for me to understand it.

I clasped the strap of the bag that I was carrying. Gosh, this situation was uncomfortable. I felt the need to escape it immediately, so… “I uh… should probably go now, I think...” I said quietly. I was just about to leave when he spoke up.

“wait,” The skeleton said. “why don’t you stay? food’s on me.” Welp. My way out of this mess just flew out of the window. Now I had to stay in order to be polite… but hey, free food. Who doesn’t like eating without paying? I took a deep breath and gave a defeated smile.

“Okay, why not.” I answered reluctantly. I still was pretty uncomfortable, especially now since a few other monsters were looking at us. Oh boy. I felt like a performer in a circus. Everyone, here’s our newest attraction, the lone, awkward human among monsters!

The skeleton took a hand out of his pockets and extended it towards me. “name’s sans. nice to meet ya, kid.”

I introduced myself and grabbed his bony hand. “Nice to meet you, t-” I was abruptly interrupted by an unpleasant farting noise that spun several seconds. I stared at Sans in surprise, but he just responded with a snicker.

“the old whoopee-cushion in the hand trick. It’ll never not be funny.” I stared at him for a few seconds, but then couldn’t hold back my amusement and started giggling like a fool. This joke was so dumb; I couldn’t do anything but giggle at it.

We went towards the counter and sat down. I almost expected another whoopee cushion on the chair, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.

“so,” he asked. “what do you want?” Well, as I came here to eat fries anyway, I answered with “fries”. Sans nodded.

“okay. hey grillby, get us a double order of fries ready.” The flame monster behind the counter nodded and disappeared into a door behind the counter without a word; presumably it was the kitchen. Me and Sans were left alone for a bit.

“so, pal,” Sans said to me, still having this gigantic grin over his face. “why don’t ya tell me something ‘bout yourself?”

I told him some facts about myself. My hobbies, some of my friends, my school, my classes… By all means, I thought of myself as being fairly average. Sans nodded through everything I said and then told me some things about himself. He had a brother named Papyrus whom he thought as being really cool. Then he told me some things about his group of friends. They apparently were among the first monsters to return to the surface, and were all friends with the human kid that was said to have had a hand in freeing them.

Well, this whole thing most certainly was interesting to listen to. When I asked him how things were when still living in the underground, he only gave me a very vague answer along the lines of “things were okay” and changed the topic. I didn’t bug him about it any more out of politeness.

Just then, Grillby came out of the kitchen with both of our fries. “well, here’s the grub.” I heard Sans say. He pulled bottle of ketchup out of his jacket. “want some?”

Now, I am not someone who usually takes suspicious bottles of jacket-ketchup from strangers, especially since it was kind of weird that he was carrying it around… but… for this once, I allowed it. The moment I tipped the bottle over, the cap fell off and all the ketchup poured over my poor, innocent fries. I stared at the ketchup-y mess I made for a moment, then back at Sans who was chuckling a little.

“sorry, that sometimes just kinda happens. let’s trade. you can have mine.” he said and switched our fries. I let out a sigh, but smiled. Dang, this skeleton was sympathetic to me already. Any and all awkwardness that still was there just a few minutes ago simply… disappeared at this point.

I started eating my fries. Yup, they immediately poofed away when I ate them, but at least they were good; albeit a little bit greasy.

The both of us shared a few jokes and bad puns while eating. I was almost done with my fries when suddenly however, my phone vibrated. I took a look as its screen… My mom left me a text message. She wanted me to come home soon, as I stayed a little longer than I originally intended. I sighed and quickly ate the rest of my fries. Then I turned towards the skeleton besides me.

“Sorry I… need to go. My mom wants me to go home.” I said and sighed. Sans nodded understandingly.

“it’s okay, bud.” He said, still smiling. “…hey, why don’t we exchange numbers? just in case you want to hear more of my hilarious jokes in the future.” For a moment I looked at him in bewilderment. Okay, that was unexpected. That skeleton actually wanted to stay in touch with average, human me? Well, I wasn’t complaining, he seemed to be a very enjoyable person so... I agreed. We gave each other our phones and exchanged our phone numbers.


	3. Just the Greatest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, hope you guys are enjoying this fic so far! However, may I direct your attention at this for a moment: https://youtu.be/dwSChoRFfkw When I was bored, I made a theme song for this fic! Would be sweet if you also read the video description! Yeah, I do writing, drawings and music, all at the same time. Neat, huh? Jack of all trades, master of none; The red mage of arts, Dimensional13, as some of my friends put it. :P Anyways, here’s the chapter! Have fun!

Over the next few weeks, Sans and I had several exchanges via text messaging... Wait, is it weird to text with a monster skeleton guy who’s probably a lot older than you…?... Eh, whatever. Most of our conversations consisted out of bad puns and talk about food, but it was fun. Really fun actually. We also met up at Grillby’s several times after school. When I first told my parents I actually made a monster friend, they… weren’t exactly thrilled about it, though. They weren’t angry or hateful or anything, now. They reacted just as awkwardly as I did initially. However, they accepted it… I think.

Anyways, School was ending. It was the last day of school before summer; a Friday in July. I got my grades and our entire class was allowed to go home. I said goodbye to several of my friends before I went home though. A lot of them were going on vacation, so I wouldn’t see them for a while. I also would be alone for a majority of the summer as my mother will be going on a business trip and my father decided to meet up with some of his family while she’s gone. I decided to stay at home, instead.

Eventually, I got home, put my bag on the ground and threw myself on my bed. I started texting with Sans out of boredom. 

“so schools out huh?”

“Yeah. And most of my friends are going on vacation so I won’t see them much. And my parents will be gone for a majority of summer. Guess I’ll play some video games and waste valuable hours of my life on the internet.”

“gee it must be getting pretty BONELY soon pal.”

“Oh, haha! But yeah, I guess you’re right. Won’t have much to do, heh.”

“i have an idea. u could visit me and my bro sumtime. whatcha think?”

“Wha? Wait, really?”

“sure. i mean, ever since i told papyrus about you hes been constantly asking about when ill introduce you to him.”

“Pfft, really?”

“yeh. he even said he wants to cook for u when u visit.”

Sans talked about his brother quite often in the past few weeks, but despite this, I barely knew anything about Papyrus. Apparently, he was like, super cool, and had trained under the head of the royal guard, back in the underground. Sans also told me that he saw himself as quite a cook and was quite a fan of puzzles. Sure seemed to be an interesting skeleton. It certainly would be quite nice to meet him… I answered Sans’ text.

“Mh… Okay, I think I’ll come over sometime. When do you guys have time?”

“tomorrow would b good. what u think?”

“Yeah, tomorrow would be great! So, see you tomorrow I guess?”

“sure, pal.”

And with that, I had plans for tomorrow.

-The next Day-

Welp, there I was, standing in front of Sans’ house; at least I thought it was Sans’ house. If the address he gave me was correct, then this must’ve been it. It was a pretty nice house in a nice neighborhood. A bit small, but it had a yard and a front yard. It also seemed like a rather new house; probably built shortly after the monsters left the underground.

I took a deep breath as I approached the door. Here we go. I knocked at the wooden door. I heard feet rapidly stepping towards the door and then, it quickly opened. I was greeted by the sight of Sans, who was wearing the exact same clothes as usual.

“hey. so you actually came, kid. that’s nice.” He said, with his usual grin. I smiled back as I stepped inside.

“Of course I came. Didn’t have much else to do at home.” I laughed. “I mean, why bore myself to death when I can meet you and your… VERTEBRO!” Sans chuckled in response.

“heard that one before, but not bad.”

I looked around. It was a pretty nice house with two stories. From the place where I was standing I saw two doors; one to the living room, the other to the kitchen. I looked back at Sans.

“So, where’s your brother? He’s at home, right?” I asked. Sans nodded.

“probably in his room. it’s upstairs if you wanna introduce yourself.” I nodded in response. As I went towards the stairs, I saw Sans laying himself down on the couch in the living room, apparently for a nap. Ah, Sans. He was living quite the life it seemed. Who doesn’t love doing absolutely nothing?

Upstairs, I Immediately saw two doors. One of them was plastered full of “keep out” signs and a Sign with “PAPYRUS’ SUPER COOL ROOM”… Err… OK, That was Papyrus’ room? The last time I saw a door, plastered with so many “stay out” signs was when I was babysitting my neighbor’s 7-Year Old… And “Super Cool”… Uhm… I wasn’t sure how to feel. 

I knocked at the door. From the inside, a pretty loud voice resounded. “SANS, IF THAT’S YOU THEN I NEED TO INFORM YOU THAT I AM A BIT BUSY RIGHT NOW.” It said.

“Uhm, no, this isn’t Sans. I am his human friend and-” I heard several fast-paced steps from behind the door and was cut short when it suddenly opened. A rather tall skeleton stood before me. He was wearing rather weird, dorky clothes; pretty sure it was a costume or something. And he seemed to be very excited; I swear, he almost looked like an excited puppy.

“HUMAN!”, the skeleton basically shouted. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM PLEASED TO FINALLY MEET YOU.” I stared at him for a while. I was speechless. THAT was the “super cool” brother of Sans? The one trained by the leader of the Royal Guard?! I peeked inside his room. I saw a bed shaped like a car and several action figures on a table. Oh gosh. I think “super dorky” would be more accurate. I looked back at him, still unsure what to say. He spoke up again.

“YOU’RE A QUIET ONE, HUH? WELL, I CAN’T BLAME YOU FOR BEEING SPEECHLESS, AS I AM INDEED VERY GREAT.” He looked pretty proud of himself. I stared at him a few more seconds, but then, I chuckled little out of reflex. That skeleton was weird… and it was kind of endearing, actually. That was something I sure didn’t expect. I extended my Hand towards him and finally introduced myself.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Oh Great Papyrus!”, I said with a smile; I didn’t want to disappoint him. He firmly grabbed my hand and shook it with his gloved hands. He did so very violently actually. Wow, he sure was excited to finally meet me. Eventually, he let go. Now he seemed to be thinking about something though.

“WAIT…” He said. “…IF YOU ARE HERE, THEN I CAN FINALLY MAKE YOU SOME OF MY LEGENDARY PASTAI! HUMAN, YOU CAN WAIT IN THE LIVING ROOM WHILE I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, PREPARE YOUR MEAL IN THE KITCHEN!” And with that, he stormed off, down the stairs. Welp. That was something. I decided to go to the living room downstairs like he said, but closed the door to his room that he left open before he ran to the kitchen. 

When I arrived downstairs, I looked at the couch Sans laid himself down on. Mh, he was gone, so he probably went to the kitchen with Papyr- “hey buddy.” “OH MY GOSH!” I reflexively jumped forward and quickly turned around, putting myself into startled, faux kung-fu pose. Sans stood on the stairs, a few steps above me. 

“woah there bud, don’t get a heart attack!” he said and chuckled. Confusedly, I looked at the skeleton for a moment, then at the couch and then back at him. “How did-… How could-?!… Nevermind...” I seriously was confused on how he got there. I mean, I should’ve noticed him if he was behind me when I was talking to his brother, shouldn’t I?

“Anyways…” I changed the subject. “Your brother’s now in the kitchen, making Spaghetti and he told me to wait in the living room until it’s done.” Sans nodded in response, still smiling as usual.

“well, that’s one of the few things he can do, y’ know. and ‘can do’ already is a generous expression; even if he improved a lot in the past four years.” Wait what. I tilted my head in confusion. “Wait a second, didn’t you tell me that your brother thought of himself as a good cook?” Sans slowly turned around walked up the stairs again.

“well, pal, he does think so, so i didn’t lie, did i?” was what he said before he disappeared into the corner. Oh boy… Now I totally wasn’t looking forward towards Papyrus’ spaghetti. 

I sighed and sat down on the couch. As I looked around, I noticed a table to the right of it with an empty bag of chips underneath with several notes on it.

“SANS, PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THAT BAG OF CHIPS”

“ok”

“AND BY “TAKE CARE OF” I MEAN, PUT IT AWAY”

“ok”

“AND DON’T PUT IT BACK WHERE IT WAS!”

“ok”

“WHY IS IT UNDER THE TABLE NOW???”

“i didn’t put it back on the table”

“FORGET IT.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. To be frank, it actually was kinda cute, seeing that they were bickering around like that.

Just in that moment, I heard several clanks and clatters coming from the kitchen. And then, a familiar, loud voice.

“HUMAN! YOU MAY COME NOW!” Welp, here I come. I entered the kitchen; it was rather small, but seemed to do its job. In the middle of the room, there was a dining table with several seats. Papyrus put down a few plates of spaghetti on it, while Sans simply was sitting on his seat… Wait… Oh come on, he ninja’d his way around me again?! I tried not to think about it as I sat down. Papyrus immediately noticed me.

“AH! HUMAN! YOU’RE JUST IN TIME! I, PAPYRUS, UNPARRALLELED SPAGHETTORE, JUST FINISHED THE PASTA.” He put down a plate in front of me and Sans. Oh boy. From what Sans said, I didn’t have high expectations of this, but tried not to show it.

I looked over to Sans. He already started eating. No Idea how, considering his mouth was closed from what I saw, but I saw some noodles sticking out of his mouth. He then looked at me. “bone appetit”, was all he said. I then looked over to Papyrus. He looked at Sans with a slight annoyance, probably in response to his pun. Then, he looked at me with a look in his eyes that resembled a little kid, eagerly waiting to see what Santa brought them this Christmas... Oh boy.

I grabbed a fork and started swirling up the spaghetti. I slowly put them into my mouth and started to chew. Yup. YUP. Yuuuuup. It was disgusting. Not “Is-he-trying-to-poison-me”-disgusting but rather “did-he-use-everything-from-the-freaking-fridge-for-this”-disgusting. Heck, how does one even screw up spaghetti…? I looked back at Papyrus. He still looked at me, eagerly awaiting my response. Well here we go…

“W-well…” I forced the spaghetti down with all of my force. “…I-it… has a very interesting… and unique taste that I never tasted before.” Papyrus’ face immediately lighted up; he seemed extremely happy because of my answer. Welp, I definitely didn’t lie, so…

“WELL, HUMAN.” ,He said, with a very proud look on his face. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, COULD COOK YOU MY PASTA WHENEVER YOU VISIT. WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

“P-please no!... U-uh, I mean…” I cleared my throat. “S-such a unique taste shouldn’t be experienced too often! W-why don’t you save up your pasta for special occasions instead?” Whew! Saved! Papyrus seemed to think about my response for a moment, but then smiled.

“WHY, YOU ARE RIGHT, HUMAN! IF MY MASTERFUL PASTA GET’S EATEN EVERY DAY, THEN IT’LL STOP BEING SPECIAL! THANKS!” Oh wow, Papyrus basically beamed with joy now! I couldn’t help but smile, myself.

“Well, that’s what Friends are for right? For helping each other and giving advice?” I thought a skeleton couldn’t look any happier, but I swear, the moment I said these words, Papyrus seemed to almost explode out of pure joy. Excitedly, he looked over to Sans.

“DID YOU HEAR THAT, BROTHER? I MADE A FRIEND!” Sans chuckled in response. “you sure did, bro.”

I let out a sigh, leaned back into my seat, looked at the ceiling and smiled. I had the feeling my life just became around ten times more interesting today.


	4. Dating… Start…?

During the next few days, I almost only hung out with the two skeletons when I had time. For some reason, I really loved both of their company. I started to hang out a little more with Papyrus than Sans after our first meeting, though. Not because I didn’t also want to spend time with Sans, but rather because he tended to disappear into thin air every time I looked away from him.

…He also tended to appear out of nowhere, whenever I least expected him to. No Idea how he does that. At first it was annoying, but I eventually learned to appreciate being suddenly startled by unexpected, small skeletons… in a way.

During my time with Papyrus, I was put into several pretty interesting and weird situations. For example, on the Monday after we met, we actually lost him in a shop when we all went shopping together and I had to search for him. He became lost in the section for mirrors of all things and couldn’t find the exit. He even thought it was a puzzle! Sans simply said “yup, papyrus finds difficulty in the weirdest of places.”

But my most memorable Papyrus-moment happened on Thursday the week after I visited the two skeletons for the first time. We all decided to hang out at my home this time; and since my parents were both gone, I didn’t need to go through the awkward process of introducing anyone to anyone, which was nice.

When we arrived, I used my keys to open the front door. “WELL, HUMAN!” Papyrus exclaimed upon looking around for a bit. “THIS IS A PRETTY NICE HOME! NOT AS NICE AS OURS, BUT I LIKE IT.” I chuckled in response. “Why, thanks Papyrus! That’s nice of you to say!” Papyrus looked happy. And so did Sans… although it was hard to tell, since he was constantly smiling anyways.

We had a nice time at my home. We spent most of the time in my room and the living room, watching TV and playing video games. Papyrus was really bad at most games so we let him win pretty often. Sans did so mostly out of laziness it seemed, but I just did it to make Papyrus happy. Whenever he won he looked so happy! Totally worth it! The few times only Sans and I played against each other however, he basically wiped the floor with me. And then he told me to “geeetttttt dunked on!”

As time passed, I decided to make some food. And since I had guests, the polite thing to do obviously make some for them!

I decided to make some of my fabled Cheese Omelets! Great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also great for snacks between meals! And midnight snacks! And every minute of the day! Thankfully, I’ve stocked up on monster food and ingredients for the chance that Sans and Papyrus might visit me a few days before; they’re skeletons. We don’t want the food to go right through them onto the ground or worse, the furniture! I mean that could happen, no? I am not entirely sure how skeleton monster biology works.

The skeletons waited a little in my room as I started cooking. I mixed the Eggs and all the other ingredients together in a bowl. Then I poured the mix into a pan of course. Eventually both came inside the kitchen anyway and sat down at the table. “HUMAN, ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T WANT ME, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, TO HELP YOU COOK?”, Papyrus asked several times. I always replied with a smile and a friendly “Nah, don’t worry. I can handle this. You cooked last time, so I’ll cook for you now! But thanks!”

Eventually, the omelets were done and I put each on an individual plate. One for Sans, one for Papyrus, one for yours truly. “BONE appetite.” I said as I handed out the plates, remembering the pun Sans told from when I visited them. Sans chuckled. “nice, kid. just nice.” Papyrus on the other hand gave me a very annoyed stare. It was sort of funny; I couldn’t help but giggle a bit.

We started eating. I know, Self-Praise isn’t good but yup, even with monster ingredients, my omelets were still great. I looked over to Sans. Well… Would you look at that. He already was finished… At least I thought so, since his plate was empty and he was leaning backward on the chair. He gave me thumbs-up. “well done, bud. sure was EGGcelent.” I chuckled at his pun and then looked at Papyrus. He didn’t hear Sans’ great joke, thankfully. Or he was just good at ignoring it.

He took a bite of the omelet and his face immediately lighted up “HUMAN, THIS IS GOOD! VERY GOOD! IT’S NOT AS GOOD AS MY MASTERFULLY HOMECOOKED PASTA, BUT STILL!” He shoved another bite between his teeth. “WOWEE! WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THIS?” I giggled like a fool at Papyrus’ reaction to my omelets. That was just plain cute.

“Oh you know, the usual. Eggs, Milk, Cheese… and lots and lots of love! Especially for you!” I jokingly said and gave him a wink, accompanied by a finger-pistol. It was dead quiet for a moment… Well, my jokes are very hit-or-miss so this probably was a miss. Anyway I-

“HUMAN…” Papyrus looked at me with a pretty surprised face. “DID… YOU JUST FLIRT WITH ME?” 

…Oh gosh. Oh gosh he didn’t get that this was a joke and now completely misunderstood! OOPS???

“U-uhm, Papyrus, I didn’t-” I was immediately cut short by the skeleton before I could explain. “SO YOU REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINS!” Oh no, oh gosh, oh geez! “SO THIS PROBABLY MEANS…” Oh no stop! “…I WILL NEED TO GO…” Abort! Abort! Fission Mailed!! Retreat!!! “…ON A DATE WITH YOU LATER!”

Well… This… wasn’t how I planned this whole thing to happen. I didn’t even think this even was a possibility! So… I just got plans for a date with Papyrus later… Yay??? I mean, he’s a nice guy, but… he’s a very innocent goofball! Maybe too innocent! Oh geez…

I looked over to Sans, partially as a not-so-subtle call for help. But he just grinned. He grinned and chuckled. I frowned. This wasn’t really helping… Looks like I really had to go through this whole thing… Okay, I had to look at this from the bright side! I can hang out with Papyrus! I’m sure It’ll be great!... I think…

 

Fast forward about an hour, we decided to go to the skeleton brothers’ house. That actually was Papyrus’ Idea… He wanted to take me someplace veeeery special… and I suppose that means his room. Huh. Anyways, we entered their home.

“hey, guys.” Sans spoke up. “if you’re looking for me, i’ll be in my room, ok? you two have fun!” And with that, he disappeared up the stairs. I was alone with Papyrus now… Uh… Awkward. “SO, HUMAN…” he said. “SHOULD I:.. SHOW YOU AROUND MY HOME FOR A BIT?” I sighed, but still smiled.

“Papyrus. I already know your home; you don’t need to show me around, really.” “OH, RIGHT.” For a moment, there was an awkward silence. I finally spoke up. “So uh… Let’s go to your room.” “AH! OF COURSE, HUMAN.” Papyrus grabbed my hand at what seemed to be the speed of light and he basically pulled me along with him up the stairs. He then opened the door to his room and pulled me inside.

“WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK?” He asked pretty excitedly. Well, I already got a glimpse of it when I first visited, but now I saw his room in its full, dorky glory. There were the action figures, there was the car-shaped bed and there even was a pirate flag at the wall; probably because of skeleton stuff.

“Uhm… Nice room papyrus. I like your… uh…” I looked around to find a conversational topic. “…bed.” Best conversational topic, MLG pro. Papyrus put himself into his usual, proud stance.

“WHY THANKS HUMAN, BUT IT’S NOTHING COMPARED TO MY REAL CAR! IT’S SO GREAT, IT MADE ME MORE POPULAR THAN EVER BEFORE! EVEN THE POLICE WANT MY AUTOGRAPH! THEY ALWAYS STOP ME TO GET ONE! ” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, proudly. 

“SANS DOESN’T LIKE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS THOUGH. MAYBE HE’S JUST JEALOUS. OR MAYBE BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS GET SO CLINGY THAT HE NEEDS TO PAY THEM TO LEAVE!” Oh boy, Papyrus. Innocent as always. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. I then looked over to his PC. It was opened to a social media website that I myself visited quite often.

I looked at his follower count. “Mh… Eleven followers, huh?” I blurted out. Most of those seemed to be friends of Sans and him; at least I think I recognized some names. Papyrus again looked at me, basically overflowing with pride. “WHY, YES! AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM QUITE A CELEBRITY IN THE WORLD WIDE WEB. BUT PLEASE, DON’T BE INTIMIDATED BY MY POPULARITY!” I didn’t have the heart to tell Papyrus that I had like five times as many followers as him though, so I left it at that. I giggled again though; okay, this date was more entertaining than I thought… Even though I had no intention of actually getting into a relationship with him! 

“So anyways…” I eventually said. “…we should probably start our date now, huh?” “OH RIGHT OF COURSE!” Papyrus responded and thought about something.

DATING START!

“…Okay then how do we start?” I literally had no Idea; I mean I never really… dated a skeleton before. Papyrus smiled. “WORRY NOT, I STILL HAVE AN OFFICIAL DATING RULEBOOK FROM THE LIBRARY BACK AT SNOWDIN… I BURROWED IT 4 YEARS AGO, BUT I THINK THAT’S OKAY.”

Papyrus went over to his bookshelf took a book into his gloves. He then opened it and looked through the pages. “OKAY THEN… IT TELLS ME TO ASK YOU ON A DATE SO… *AHEM*. HUMAN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL ASK YOU ON A DATE!”

“Uhm…” I responded in a flat voice and shrugged. “…Sure I guess?” I mean he already basically kinda asked me out already… Or was it the other way around?

“REALLY?! WOWEE! WELL THEN, WHAT’S NEXT AGAIN?” He turned the page. “WEAR NICE CLOTHING TO SHOW YOU CARE… WAIT.” Papyrus was eying the hoodie that I was wearing. It was my favorite, but that’s not really important, right?

“THIS HOODIE… YOU’RE WEARING CLOTHING RIGHT NOW! AND NOT ONLY THAT, YOU ALSO WERE WEARING CLOTHING EARLIER!” I scratched the back of my head. Yup, that’s Papyrus for ya. “Uhm… Yeah… that’s kinda what humans do… wear… clothing.” 

Papyrus put both of his hands on his face in a surprised manner. “WOWEE, THIS IS LIKE FRISK ALL OVER AGAIN!” OH GEE, COULD THIS MEAN… YOU WERE PLANNING ON DATING ME ALL ALONG?!”

I awkwardly looked around. Also because I had no Idea what he was talking about. “Err… No Papyrus, I actually didn’t… Sorry!”

“T-THEN THIS MEANS… YOU WERE ABLE TO GET A DATE WITH ME WITHOUT EVEN TRYING! YOU’RE WAY BETTER AT DATING THAN ME!!! NOOOOO! YOUR DATING POWER!!!”

It almost felt like I was able to hit them in some sort of RPG Battle or something. This whole… “Date” if you could even call it that, was so weird, I couldn’t help but laugh. Papyrus didn’t seem offended though, as he started laughing too… But then…

“NYEH…HEHE…NYEHEHE! DON’T THINK YOU’VE WON JUST YET! I’VE BEEN BEATEN AT DATING ONLY ONCE BEFORE AND I WON’T LET A SECOND TIME HAPPEN!” Oh gosh, this whole thing basically devolved into an RPG Fight and I loved it. 

Papyrus disappeared into his closed for a moment and then immediately jumped out with his casual clothes. Wearable basketballs, A “cool dude” t-shirt and a cap. Nothing I haven’t seen before. “BEHOLD! I TOO CAN WEAR CLOTHES! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY SECRET STYLE?” I kept snickering.

“Hehehe… P-papyrus, I already know these clothes! And you know I think that they l-look very great on you!” “NOOO! A GENUINE COMPLIMENT!”

I once again felt like I managed to successfully, albeit non-violently take another hit in an RPG. The look on Papyrus’ face was priceless.

“BUT… SINCE YOU ALREADY KNOW IT THIS DOESN’T COUNT! ALSO BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW THIS OUTFIT’S… SECRET. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN FIND IT?” …Secret? Now I was intrigued.

“Well! I am always up for the challenge!” I put my hand underneath my chin and scanned Papyrus’ clothes from top to bottom. “…Is it your simply super cool, self-improved shirt?” “THANKS, HUMAN, BUT NO!” I kept looking… Basketballs…? Nah… His arms...? Nope. But maybe…

“Is it your hat?” Papyrus nodded excitedly. “YES, HUMAN! GOOD JOB! YOU’RE THE SECOND ONE TO FIND THIS OUTFIT’S SECRET! LET ME SHOW YOU!”

He took off his hat and revealed… A present! Oh gosh, a present! He handed it over to me! “Oh no, Papyrus! You shouldn’t have! Thanks!” Oh yeah! This is great! A present out of nowhere! I quickly opened it up. “I wonder what it is! Maybe-!” Oh no… It was…

“’SPAGHETTI’. YOU WANTED TO SAY SPAGHETTI, RIGHT? BUT THIS IS NOT PLAIN OLD PASTA! THIS! IS A CULINARY MASTERPIECE THAT ONLY ONE OTHER PERSON HAD THE HONOR TO EAT BEFORE! WHY DON’T YOU TRY IT?” 

I stared at the plate inside the box, then back at Papyrus, then back at the box… I gave Papyrus a sheepish smile.“…Oh gee, Papyrus… you… really shouldn’t have.” I slowly picked up the fork inside the box and looked at Papyrus. He expectantly looked at me with a giant smile on his skull. I sighed, twirled up a single noodle and put it in my mouth.

…Blurrrghhh …It was absolutely disgusting; even worse than the Spaghetti that I had a few days before. By far. I felt like I was gonna barf at any moment. Not only was the taste absolutely indescribable, it also felt like this pasta was years old… Monster food doesn’t spoil but… it definitely tasted like it was kept somewhere unclean. He probably kept the box under his bed or inside his closet or his sock drawer or something.

The disgusting taste of the noodles wouldn’t get out of my mouth. My face basically felt like it was going to fall off. I looked at Papyrus. “OH WOW, WHAT A PASSIONATE EXPRESSION! EVEN MORE PASSIONATE THAN THE LAST TIME I LET SOMEONE TASTE THIS PASTA!” Papyrus blushed like crazy… somehow.

“YOU REALLY MUST LOVE MY COOKING! AND BY EXTENSION, ME! NOOOOOO!”

And with that, the final blow in our little dating-RPG thing was dealt. I won… I think. I went a step towards Papyrus who was kneeling in front of me in a defeated manner.

I bent down in front of him.“Uhm… Paps, are you okay?...” I asked in the gentlest tone I could manage. “HUMAN.” Papyrus said and looked into my eyes. Oh gosh. “IT’S NOW CLEAR HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ME. NOW IT’S TIME FOR ME TO TELL YOU HOW I FEEL! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS…” …It was quiet for a while. A good while. Nobody said anything. Papyrus didn’t finish his sentence.

“…Uh… Papyrus?” I eventually asked to get a response out of him. “HUMAN I… I AM SORRY, I CAN’T DO IT.” Papyrus looked extremely sad, almost as if he was about to cry. Oh gosh…

“W-what’s wrong Papyrus?” I asked, trying my best to hide my worry that I may have done something wrong. “I AM SORRY, HUMAN, BUT… I DON’T LIKE YOU THAT WAY…” Oh wow, the remorse on Papyrus’ face was almost making me cry too… Well, at least it would have if the situation wasn’t so damn weird.

“IT’S JUST LIKE LAST TIME… I THOUGH SINCE YOU FLIRTED WITH ME, A DATE COULD BE THE THING THAT WOULD MAKE FEELINGS FOR YOU BLOSSOM, BUT…” He disappointedly looked down to the ground. Oh gee, I really wanted to hug that skeleton right now. 

“I STILL FEEL THE SAME… AND ONCE AGAIN, I’VE DRIVEN ANOTHER FRIEND INTO A PRISON OF LOVE FOR ME!!! I AM A TERRIBLE FRIEND!” Aww, Papyrus… I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled. 

“Papyrus, it’s okay. I… uh… was prepared from the beginning that this might not work out… I am okay, don’t worry. I’d be perfectly happy if you stayed my very cool friend! Because you are very great nonetheless!” I tried my best to cheer him up. Papyrus lifted his head and looked at me. His face immediately lighted up.

“R-REALLY?” He asked, bit still a bit unsure. I simply nodded. That’s when he, out of nowhere, wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. “THANKS, HUMAN. AND YOU ARE VERY GREAT TOO!” I hugged him back.

Papyrus and I hung out for a bit more in his room. We even played a bit with his action figure and-… I mean we used his action figures to simulate combat situations! Eventually it was getting pretty late and I had to go home. Papyrus was a bit sad that I already had to go, but we said goodbye to each other after I promised to him that we’d hang out more on a later date and I left his room. And guess who immediately appeared in front of me when I turned around after I closed the door behind me.

Yup, it was Sans the Skeleton, in all of his glory. “hey, buddy. how did your date go?” “WAH!” I stumbled in surprise and clutched my chest. After a few breaths, I looked at him a bit annoyed. “…I still have no Idea how you are able to do that, but please, stop it. I almost had a heart attack!”

“come on, kid. no need to be so STERNum!” I couldn’t help it and giggled at his pun in response and suddenly, all was forgiven. I just couldn’t stay mad at that guy. I scratched the back of my head. “Well, I do not have a new skeleton boyfriend if that is what you mean. But it still was nice! I just wanted to go home now though, it’s getting pretty late.” Sans nodded in response.

“’kay then. but let me tell you one thing before you go, buddy.” He said. He had my full attention.

“papyrus really likes you. even if not that way. and i can tell you like him too. it’s pretty cool to see that you two got so close so quickly.” Sans seemed to be a little more serious than usual. It was a bit weird, but also refreshing. “you make my brother really happy. thanks.”

I let out an awkward chuckle and scratched the back of my head. Wow, this sure was nice to hear, but I wasn’t really used to be thanked like that. “O-oh you’re welcome, Sans! But without you, this probably would’ve never happened! You’re a really great brother to Papyrus, you should know! And also a very good friend!” 

Sans chuckled in response. “heh, thanks pal… I appreciate it.” He want past me and over to the door of his room. Then he looked over to me and raised his hand before he disappeared into it. “well. see ya around!”

Once I was alone, I slowly went down the stairs and towards the front door. As I stepped out, I looked towards the sky. The sun already was about to set. I smiled and was sure that I would probably never forget this day… and this weird date with Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you liked this chapter! I sure had a lot of fun writing it! :V Next chapter, a few familiar faces will be introduced! So look forward to it! ;P


	5. Of Spears, broken Furniture and Anime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took so long to finish; both my internship and Fallout 4 kinda stole time from me. Anyways, First of all, let me show you this! I doodled some different interpretations of the Narrator: http://tinyurl.com/pmu9g9a Ok, you can move on now, the rest of the notes are at the end of the fic!

It was a Saturday at around twelve in the noon; a week has passed since I first met Papyrus. And two days have passed since my little date with him. It still lingered in the back of my mind, and the silliness of it still made me smile when I thought about it.

I was sitting in front of my PC, doing my usual stuff. I slept for a relatively long time today, since I didn’t have any plans to hang out with the skeleton brothers today. I even still was in my pajamas. Anyways, I was browsing the internet, doing my usual things, when suddenly my phone on the desk next to me started vibrating.

I picked it up. I got a text. And it was from Papyrus. Mh? I wondered what he could possibly want from me right now…

“Human! Wanna hang out?” 

Oh! Well, I didn’t really have anything better to do, as I didn’t have any plans for today, so…

“Sure! When?”

That’s when I heard the doorbell. Huh? Who could it be…? Maybe the mailman? I recently ordered a video game on the internet; so it was possible. I lifted my butt from my chair, phone still in hands, and went towards the front door.

As I opened the door… a certain “cool dude” shirt immediately met my attention. I lifted my head… It was Papyrus. 

“GREETINGS, HUMAN! I HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL TODAY! NYEHHEHE!” Papyrus gave me his usual happy-go-lucky look. I blinked in confusion, looked at my phone, then back at Papyrus. 

“…Papyrus, what are-…?” In that moment, something clicked inside my head. “… don’t tell me, you already were waiting in front of my front door when you sent this text, didn’t you?” Papyrus hesitantly scratched the back of his head and nodded slightly embarrassedly. I guess I was right. Geez, what a dork; what a lovable, lovable dork. 

“SOOOO… HUMAN…” he said nervously. “…MAY WE COME IN?” I let out a defeated sigh. I just couldn’t say no to this skeleton. I couldn’t do it.

“…Fine, come in. But let me just get out of my jammies real qui- wait.” Papyrus just said “we”, didn’t he? “…Did you bring Sans with you?” Papyrus crossed his arms dismissively and shook his head.

“SANS? NO, THAT OLD LAZYBONES IS AT HOME. HE WAS SUPPOSED TO FIX THE KITCHEN BUT WHEN I LEFT, HE STILL WAS LYING ON THE COUCH!” Huh… So Sans wasn’t with him… Wait, fix the kitchen? It was just fine, two days ago, wasn’t it…? 

“Uh… Why does your kitchen need fixing anyway…?” Yeah, I just couldn’t help but ask… Papyrus grabbed his left arm and slightly embarrassedly looked to the side.

“W-WELL, HUMAN…” He blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head. “…I WAS HANGING OUT WITH UNDYNE AND… MAYBE OUR… COOKING GOT A LITTLE… OUT OF HAND.” Undyne? I already heard of her; she was the former head of the royal guard. And Papyrus trained under her for some time. I also heard that Papyrus got his… ahem… “cooking skills” from her.

“Wow… You two really must be quite something together…” was all I could say about that matter. Papyrus seemed to be taking this as a compliment, as evident by the proud look on his face after I said that. “Anyways… who did you bring with you?”

“OH, RIGHT! LET ME JUST GET OUT OF THE WAY SO I CAN PROPERLY INTRODUCE YOU TO HER!” Papyrus stepped to the side and I noticed a second monster, walking towards my front door with a huge smile. She was female and some kind of fish monster. One of her eyes was covered with an eyepatch. Worth noting also were her sharp teeth and her built; she was slim but obviously quite strong. She probably worked out.

“Hey, Punk!” She extended her hand towards me and gave me a broad smile. “Nice to meet ya! So YOU are the human that I’ve heard so much about already! Name’s Undyne!” Woah! THAT was Undyne? Well, I certainly imagined to be pretty much like this, but that still was a pretty weird experience after all these stories I heard about her.

A looked at her for a few seconds, being unsure how to react to her. But eventually, I slowly grabbed her hand and let her give me a handshake. A very firm handshake. Ow, my poor hand.

I finally way able to utter a few words. “I-it’s very nice to meet you, Undyne!” I got to say, I was a little bin intimidated by her. She seemed to be a good person though; even I could see that. “A-anyways, why don’t you come inside? I’ll need to change really quick so make yourself comfortable!”

“Why, thank you!” said Undyne with a toothy smile. “…But can we use your kitchen for a bit? Papyrus and I had to abort our last cooking session due to an extreme case of a… very broken kitchen, as you know. We were almost done and I still have everything with me so…”

Oh boy. I wasn’t sure if it would be smart to let them use my parent’s kitchen… I looked at Papyrus… oh noooo, he was making these puppy dog eyes!

“…Okay, fine. But please… be as careful as you can possibly be.” Papyrus and Undyne looked at each other for a moment, and then nodded.

“HUMAN, WE WILL BE AS CAREFUL AS POSSIBLE! I PROMISE!”, said Papyrus. Undyne nodded in response. “I uh… Promise too!” Well, a promise by the sweetest skeleton I know… Well, I trusted him, so, in turn, I trusted Undyne. I gave a defeated smile in response.

“Okay then. But if you excuse me, I’ll be in the bathroom to change and brush my teeth and stuff!” And with that, I disappeared into the bath room, with some clothes I quickly got from my closet. 

 

I did usual morning stuff. Took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and changed. Nothing big.

Just as I put on my pants, I heard deafeningly loud sound; a crash, followed by several shattering sounds… Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no… I put on the rest of my clothes as quickly as I possibly could and stormed into the kitchen. “GUYS, ARE YOU OK?! WHAT IN THe world… happ-…”

I stared at my kitchen in disbelief. I was absolutely flabbergasted. No. Just… no. There was no was this was real. At least I hoped that this wasn’t real. Both the oven and the dining table where smashed into smithereens. Bones and blue Spears were stuck in both of them. Plates and even our fine china were scattered all over the floor, broken into pieces. Pans and Pots, all broken and dented, were all over the place.

Undyne and Papyrus simply stood there, both holding plates of… Spaghetti. Of course it was Spaghetti. Both of them were dirty and covered in noodles and sauce. Their clothes were singed. They looked at each other with an uncomfortable expression.

“…Guys…” I let out the biggest sigh that I ever sighed in my entire life. “…What did I tell you about being careful…?” Papyrus covered his face with his hands in shame.

“I-I AM SO SORRY, HUMAN! I SWEAR, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WAS AS CAREFUL AS I COULD POSSIBLY BE!” …As careful as possible. And yet, bones everywhere…

“Y-yes! Papyrus is right! I-I was the one who thought of mixing this whole thing up with some… combat training…” She looked over to my poor, destroyed table. “…Well, the good news is, this isn’t nearly as bad as the mess we made back at Papyrus’ place… Oh man…”

…Wow… Just… Wow… I grabbed a chair, sat down and buried my face into my hands. There was no way I would be able to repair or replace everything these two broke! I was way to broke and either way, my parents would notice!... Oh boy, I am dead. I am so dead! When my parents see what happened to the kitchen, they will kill me! Oh no…

Papyrus slowly put his hand on my shoulder. “N-NOW, HUMAN, THERE’S NO NEED TO WORRY!” I looked up towards him. He looked a bit nervous still and held up a plate of spaghetti in front of my face. “M-MAYBE SOME OF MY GREAT SPAGHETTI WILL CHEER YOU UP FOR NOW!”

I suspiciously looked at the plate of spaghetti. I already kind of lost my faith in Papyrus’ cooking, so I wasn’t sure. But seeing Papyrus’ genuine sorrow persuaded me to at least give it another try. Papyrus put the plate on my lap and I twirled up some of the Spaghetti. Reluctantly, I put it into my mouth.

…Oh, hey! It… actually was okay! Not great by any means, but I definitely tasted worse! Maybe it tasted better than usual because Undyne helped to cook? Well, at least it was more edible than his past pasta creations. And Papyrus was right; it cheered me up a little.

After I ate up, I got up from the Chair. “…Thanks guys, I… really needed that.” I looked down at the destroyed table and at the broken oven again. Both seemed to be broken beyond repair. I sighed. “…But this is going to be a problem… Oh god, my parents won’t like this…”

Papyrus, who apparently still felt a bit guilty, at least according to his facial expression, spoke up. “…HUMAN, MAY I PROPOSE A SOLUTION TO THIS DILEMMA?” Wait, a proposal? “Uh… Papyrus, I don’t think there’s anything we can do about this…”, I simply said. Hey, just stating my thoughts here.

“WELL, YOU ARE RIGHT. AS GREAT AS I AM, I DON’T THINK I CAN HELP. BUT SANS CAN!” I blinked at him, not being sure what to say.

“…Sans? Are you sure, Pap?” “WELL OF COURSE! I TOLD YOU HE WAS FIXING OUR KITCHEN, RIGHT? HE DOES THAT ALL THE TIME!” The skeleton scratched the back of his head in a thoughtful manner. “…I DON’T KNOW HOW HE DOES IT THOUGH. HE NEVER STARTS FIXING UNTIL HE’S HOME ALONE, SO I NEVER SEE ANYTHING!”

Oh, well, here we had another peek into Sans’ abilities. Not only was he basically a Ninja, he also could fix kitchen furniture and tools… but only when nobody’s observing. Welp. “Well… In that case, let me just call him real quick and ask him if he could do me a favor…”

I left the kitchen and dialed Sans’ number. I waited for a couple of seconds before somebody picked up.

“ey, this is sans the skeleton at his bone home, s’up bud.”

“Hey Sans!... Uh… Do you know that Papyrus and Undyne are currently at my place?”

“oh, so that’s where they went after making this mess… had a skeleTON of work to do thanks to them. well, good news is, the kitchen never looked better.”

“PFFFT! You always manage to hit my FUNNY BONE… But yeah, talking about messes… your brother’s RADIUS of destruction also kind of… included my own kitchen.”

“oh well… nice puns by the way, kid. gettin’ better there.”

“Heh… so… could you… uh… do me a favor and help me clean up…? I can’t do this on my own and when my parents come home in a few weeks and see this... well…”

“eh, i dunno, kid. i’m a bit tired and just wanted to lay down.” Oh well, this was disappointing. 

“I uh… I see… Well, it is okay then, maybe I-” The pushover that I was immediately about to hang up again. However, I was cut short by Sans.

“but hey, y’ know what? i’ll do it for ya, pal…”

“Oh! T-thank you! That’s awfully nice of you!”

“anything for my second favorite human. Buuuut…” I heard him chuckle a little on the other side of the line.

“Errr… But what…?”

“that means you’ll need to do a favor for me too!” Sans sounded pretty playful over the phone. I wasn’t entirely sure if he actually meant this or if it was just a joke.

“Err… like what…?”

“can’t think of anything right now, but i will let you know when i know, k?” well, serious or not, he definitely had fun making me indebted to him; even if it was a joke. “so, should i come over now?”

“S-… sure. So, see you in a few minutes?”

“yeah, see ya.”

 

And with that he hung up. Well… that was a thing that happened. As I turned around and went back into the kitchen, I noticed that both Undyne and Papyrus were helping to clean up at least some of the broken plates and pots. Papyrus immediately noticed that I went back in.

“AH! H-HUMAN! WELL, WHAT DID HE SAY?” He still looked a bit shaken up. I gave him a gentle smile.

“Well, he agreed to help me clean up but… now I am kind of indebted to him. Heh. I think he meant it as a joke though.” I scratched the back of my head. Undyne went towards me and put her hand on my shoulder. She looked a bit embarrassed, but still smiled.

“Well… Sorry punk, for making this mess again. Considering this… usually happens, I should have expected this to happen here, too.” She chuckled a little. “Anyways… what will you do when Sans comes here? I mean, I told you he never cleans up when someone can see him.”

I was about to say something when I realized… I had absolutely no Idea. It was Saturday and I didn’t really want to go shopping, most of my friends were away for the summer… “I uh… don’t know.” Was what I answered.

“Oh, well that sucks.” said Undyne in response. For a moment, she seemed to be thinking about what to do. Then she had an idea. “…Oh hey! I know! Why not hang out at my place? I could also introduce you to my GF! What do you think?”

Oh, yeah, Undyne had a girlfriend. Sans one told me about her. She once was the royal scientist. But I wondered how the two got together; such an extremely strong warrior girl doesn’t seem like she’d be into some lame old scientist… But hey, opposites attract, don’t they?

“…Ah, sure why not.” It definitely sounded like a nice Idea. I looked over to Papyrus. “What about you, Papyrus? Will you come with?” The skeleton slowly shook his head.

“I APOLOGIZE, HUMAN, BUT I HAVE BUSINESS TO ATTEND.“ He smiled. “FRISK WANTED TO COME OVER AND SINCE SANS WON’T BE THERE, I NEED TO BE AN EXTRA-GREAT HOST!”

Frisk, huh? The human they all were friends with, I remember. Apparently they had a hand in freeing them all… I let out a defeated sigh. “Ah… It’s okay. I understand.” Actually, I wasn’t okay. I was going to spend the majority of the day with two people I barely knew, all on my own. Given my usual shyness and awkwardness around people… well, I had high hopes but low expectations.

I heard the doorbell again. “Oh! Excuse me, guys, I’ll need to answer this.” With that I excused myself and opened the door. It was Sans, of course.

“hey,kid. so, i’m here.” For a moment, I was wondering how he was able to get here that fast. Our homes were quite far away from each other; basically at the opposite ends of the town. However, considering it was Sans we were talking about, I eventually stopped asking questions on how he was able to do stuff like this.

“Hey, Sans. That was quick! But I guess I already can expect that kind of stuff from you.” He chuckled in response. “heh, i guess so. so where was your kitchen again?” And with that, I led him to my kitchen.

There, he cracked a few jokes and puns at Undyne’s and Papyrus’ destructiveness, much to their dismay. And after that, he went to the living room and laid himself down on the couch. I took this as a sign that we needed to leave.

 

After Undyne and I said goodbye to Papyrus, we went going. She told me that she didn’t live too far away from me, which was nice. We got wrapped up in a conversation.

“So.” She said. “How did you get known to Papyrus and Sans?” She definitely was trying to break the ice between us, which was definitely a good thing.

“Oh well… One day after school, I decided to pop by at Grillby’s to get some food… Heh, it was near my School so I thought why not.” I let out a chuckle. “And then I met Sans there. He started talking to me, paid for my food, we got wrapped up in some talk and well, now we’re friends. A few weeks after that he introduced me to Papyrus.”

Undyne nodded thoughtfully as she listened to what I said. “Huh. I see. So it was him who started the conversation?”

“Well, yeah. But before that, he muttered something about a human at Grillby’s being new or something. I could clearly hear it.” Undyne gave me a slightly confused look. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that.

“…Huh, that’s weird. I mean a few humans DO frequently go to Grillby’s. Just last time Sans invited me and Alphys for some food, there were a few.” The thoughtful look on her face slowly turned into a happy, toothy smile. “Eh, both of the skeletons are weirdos anyway.”

Huh… Well it was indeed weird that he reacted that way then. But I trusted Undynes words and quickly forgot about it again.

We arrived in front of her house. It was… weird looking and had the shape of a fish head. It stuck out like a sore thumb between all of these other, perfectly normal houses. Well, at least it looked intriguing. She got her keys and opened the door. It was a nice house; not too shabby.

From where I was standing, I was able to see into the room in front of us; the door was open. It apparently was a living room with a kitchen combined. On the couch in front of the TV sat a yellow lizard monster wearing glasses. Apparently she was female, since she wore relatively feminine clothes… and a lab coat. She was reading something. Oh so that must be…

“Hey, Alphy! I am home!~” Undyne called with a laugh as she put her jacket over her coat rack. Alphys lifted her head.

“O-oh! Hey Un-” She immediately noticed me and looked at me with a pretty surprised face. “U-uh… Who’s… who’s that…?”

“Oh, that? This is the human I told you about. The one who’s friends with Sans and Pap.” She let out a loud laugh. “Fuhuhuhu! We kinda thrashed their kitchen today so I invited them over until Sans fixes it!”

I went over to Alphys, reluctantly, and introduced myself. “I-it’s… nice to meet you.” I said. “N-nice to meet you… t-too…” she responded. Well, at least I wasn’t the only awkward person around here, so that’s a plus… or a minus, depends on how you view it.

There was an awkward silence between us. Undyne took this as an opportunity to say something.

“W-well then! Does anyone have an idea what we could do? Board Games? Tic Tac Toe…?” I responded with a shrug. “I uh… don’t know…” I started going through several options in my head. “Maybe we could watch some movies…? If you have something like that…?”

Alphys shyly and quietly responded to my proposal. “…Uh I… have some Anime DVDs if… if t-that’s okay…” She looked at me “D-do you… like Anime?”

I scratched the back of my head. Oooohh… Anime. A tough subject. I watched some every now and then but I used to watch sooo much more when I was in middle school… A lot more. Yeah, I don’t talk about these dark times. The thought alone still makes me shudder.

“S-sometimes.” I responded. “I mean we can watch what you have and see if I like it, if that’s okay.”

“Well then! Then it’s decided! We’ll watch some Anime!” Undyne clapped her hands and gave us both a big smile. “I’ll go make popcorn!” And with that, she went over to the kitchen-half of the room and I was left alone with Alphys on the couch. Well. Awkward.

“So uh… Alphys.” I decided to start a conversation so that we don’t simply sit around and do nothing. “How did you and Undyne get together?”

“O-oh! W-well, u-uhm-…” Alphys blushed a little when I asked this question. I had to say, that was actually kinda cute. “W-we met back in the U-underground… I-i was hanging a-around the garbage dump a-and there I… became friends with her…”

Alphys took a pillow and buried her face into it. “A-and a w-while l-later F-frisk… h-helped us t-to… get together… h-hehe… hehe… heh…” Oh boy. I wasn’t gonna ask for details or else she’d become even more of a stuttering mess. It was cute, I admit, but things probably would get really awkward for her. I tried to change the subject.

“S-so, about the Anime we’re going to watch…” I scratched the back of my head and smiled. “…How’s it called? Maybe I know it!” Alphys put her head out of the pillow and looked at me in silence for a moment. I could basically see her eyes light up.

“U-uh… A-ah! I am sure you’ll like it! It’s one of my favourites!” Well that sounds promising. “Well, It’s called ‘Mew Mew Kissy Cutie’! I-it’s about this human girl with cat-ears! S-so she’s not quite human! When she kisses people, she can mind control them and-” Alphys basically couldn’t stop talking. She seemed to be rather passionate about this anime… But this name seemed not really like something I’d watch…

Our conversation was interrupted by Undyne, who came towards us with a bowl full of popcorn. I looked at her kitchen. Much to my surprise, it still was intact. Well, I guess the destructiveness of her cooking only really comes through when Papyrus was around. She sat herself down on the couch, right between me and Alphys.

“Well then!” She picked up the TV-remote. “How about we start?” Both Alphys and I nodded. Let the Anime begin.

 

Around one and a half hours later, I was limply slouching over in the couch. We were marathoning the entire first season. Not the second one, since it apparently was vastly inferior. And the whole thing was almost physically painful to watch. I was so glad when it was finally over, but tried my best not to show it.

“Well, that was fun! Good old Mew Mew is always great! Don’t you think so, Alphys?” Undyne laughed happily and Alphys nodded shyly. “My favorite part always is the scene with Mew Mew’s inner turmoil over her kissing powers! And the fight scene with her dark side in her subconscious! What about you two?”

“U-uhm, well…” Alphys smiled happily. “T-the beach scene in episode 7 is and always will be my favourite! Such a strong message about friendship!” As she finished talking, both of them looked at me with anticipation. Oh boy.

“Uhm… w-well…” I stuttered nervously. Throughout the majority of the experience, I kind of shut down my brain so that I wouldn’t go mad over watching this anime. “I… liked the parts where she… uh… kissed… people…” Nailed it.

Both of them looked at me for a moment, wordlessly. However, then, out of nowhere, Undyne started laughing very loudly. She was basically hollering. “FUHUHUHUHUHUHU! I see, I see!” She had a gigantic smile on her face, bigger than usual.

“Uh… see… see what?” I asked in a low voice. The fish monster leaned over towards me.“Fuhu… You’re single, right? Don’t worry, it’s toootally fine to feel that way about smooches.” Even Alphys decided to say something, now. “Y-yeah! D-don’t worry, you’ll find someone special eventually!”

My face turned red in embarrassment immediately. Even though they didn’t notice I didn’t really like that anime and wasn’t paying attention… They were right. Very right actually. I was the singlest single that ever existed. And even though I never really have shown interest in being a relationship that much before, I always thought that would be nice… Oh geeze.

Undyne laughed a bit more, probably because of my embarrassed looking face. I picked up a pillow and buried my face in it. I also heard Alphys giggle a little.

A few seconds later, I already calmed down a little. I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit myself now. And soon, we all burst out into laughing.

That was… nice. Very nice actually. It seemed like that I, once again, was able to make some friends. Maybe… I should be more open much more often.

 

We spent the rest of the day talking about certain anime we liked and even watched some episodes of one of my favorites after recommending it to them both. They loved it so far, so we made plans to keep watching sometime again together.

We were having a really great time, when I suddenly heard my phone ring. It was Sans.

“hey,kid. your kitchen’s as good as new.” Was what he said. I blinked in surprise and looked at the clock. It was the early evening. He was done already. Wow. He really was fast. I at least expected him to only be done by tomorrow.

“Oh! Why, thanks Sans! That was pretty quick!” I head Sans chuckling at the other end of the line. “oh, really? i actually was taking my time. i could’ve been done hours ago.”

I blinked in surprise. Wait what. “Then why did you…?” He chuckled again. “welp, since you were at Undyne’s with Alphys, i didn’t wanna interrupt you, potentially BONEding with each other.”

I sighed, trying to hide my smile over the phone. “Sans, that was not only a bad joke; this also was two letters away from being extremely inappropriate.”

“heh. yeah, sorry. this pun could’ve been better. so when are you gonna come back over?” I shrugged. “I guess as soon as possible.” 

“ok. well then. cya later kid.”

“Bye!”

After I hung up, I noticed that Undyne and Alphys looked at me. “So, Sans is done with the kitchen?” Asked Undyne. I nodded in response. “Aww… b-but it was just getting really fun!... Right?...” complained Alphys.

“Yup. I could go home right now… buuuuut…” I gave the two a big smile. “How about another episode before I go?” That was something we all happily agreed to.

 

Eventually, I said goodbye to Undyne and Alphys and went on my way. Walking down the street, I still had a huge smile on my face. Despite the thing with my kitchen, this was a really good day. I didn’t think I’ve been in such a good mood often lately!

I looked up towards the sky. The sun was setting once again and I already saw a few stars on in the reddish sky. I stopped for a moment to contemplate what was happening in my life. Summer had barely started, and I already experienced quite a lot. Heck, I even made friends with monsters! Something I’ve never done before! And I couldn’t be happier.

…I was ripped out of my thoughts by a shout, coming from the other side of the street. “Y-yo! C-come on, dude! Just leave me alone!” I turned my head towards the source of the sound.

It was a monster kid… or maybe a young monster teen, being followed around by a human boy of around the same age. The monster seemed to be some sort of armless lizard. The human reminded me of one of my bullies in middle school, though.

I looked at the scene which unfolded in front of me from afar. The boy put the monster kid into some sort of headlock and gave them a noogie. A pretty strong one too. Just watching this was painful.

I simply stood there, unsure what to do. Were these two maybe just friends, messing around with each other…? No. No, the monster kid just shouted at the boy to leave them alone… So that couldn’t be it.

For a moment, I was tempted to step in and do something… but… what if I completely misunderstood the situation…? What if I just got into trouble if I did something…?

The monster kid was able to free themselves from the boy’s grip and started running again. That’s when I decided to just… go. I was sure they could fend for themselves… probably.

Once again, I heard the monster shout. “D-dude, just S-STOP ALREADY!” I stopped again. Okay, maybe I should really step in. I turned around… but when I looked, both of them already were gone.

I sighed and went back on my way. I felt a bit guilty. I probably should’ve done something… I mean, I was able to make friends with monsters within the last few weeks, and had lots of fun doing so but… I couldn’t do something as simple as speak up for a monster kid?

I sighed as I realized what this meant. I… probably still had a long way to go. I couldn’t keep avoiding conflict like this forever… I really needed to get this under control. 

I still was a victim to my own Bystander Syndrome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this sweet chapter with Undyne and Alphys! Now, this is where this fic gets interesting. The next chapter will be a short intermission that will be the first step towards the first few several… twists in this story. No more pure, simple slice-of-life, now we get to the good stuff. (￣ω￣)


	6. Intermission – White Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The intermission chapter I announced last time. Here we go!

I was looking forward towards today! I was sure today was going to be great! Pfft, of course it would be great, with Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, Sans and me, all hanging out together! I walked along the sidewalk with a gigantic smile over my face. I wondered what we could do today. Maybe we could have a picnic? Us all combined probably had enough food for that! Or hey, maybe we could watch Undyne and Papyrus doing some sparring! Or maybe-

My thoughts were cut short by a familiar sounding voice shouting. “Y-yo, L-listen! I’ve told you guys enough times to leave me alone! I-I’m going to tell on you!” I turned my head towards the other side of the street. It was the monster kid from earlier, this time surrounded by not only one human boy, but three of them. And two of them looked significantly older.

I stared at what was happening in front of me. Okay. That definitely wasn’t right. They definitely were ganging up on that kid! I wasn’t sure what to do and froze. A red car drove by. The driver definitely saw what was happening… and simply drove by.

The boys were pushing the kid around, as if they were some sort of playing ball. And then I saw something that made me realize that someone needed to do something this instant. The biggest boy in the group grabbed the kid and… another one of them slapped that poor thing across the face. I could see that they were in pain. They were crying.

I… I needed to do something! B-but what?! Maybe… Maybe I should step in… No, that probably wouldn’t be smart. I may be older than all of them, but I wasn’t going to risk getting into trouble with their parents, if they decided to blame me for something I wouldn’t do…

…I took my phone out of my pocked and dialed 911. Maybe the police can teach these boys some manners! There’s nothing scarier to a middle schooler than a policeman!

Beep…

The last one of the boys eventually started slapping the monster kid, too. This… this is unacceptable! What’s gotten into these kids?!... Judging by the way they dressed, however, I could assume that they probably didn’t grow up in the most loving households…

Beep…

The kids eventually stopped slapping the crap out of that poor monster. I took a deep breath, already half expecting this whole thing to be over… when suddenly, the boy who held the monster kid looked towards the right. I saw a creepy smile form on his face, and his grip on the kid’s shoulders tightened.

Beep…

…What was this boy planning…? I looked to the right side of the street myself… and there it was… A truck, approaching at high speeds. No… This kid wasn’t planning what I think he was planning, was he…? …And then it happened.

Beep…

The boy pushed the monster kid onto the street. A shout escaped from my lips. “N-no, WAIT! Kid!” There was a scream, the sound of squealing tires and then… silence… A greyish-white dust covered the street. Its dull color was filling me with overwhelming despair. I noticed that, in my shock, I ran a few steps onto the street and stopped in the middle of the road, only a few meters away from what just transpired. The kids in front of me had a disturbing smile on their face… but once they noticed me, their expressions turned from cruel happiness into absolute fear.

Click! “911, what’s your emergency?” I gulped. “I think I… just witnessed a murder…”

.  
.  
.

…I woke up in my bed, covered in sweat.


	7. Super Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this whole thing took so long to write! December and the holidays kinda distracted me. A lot. Anyways, here’s chapter 7. Hope you’re enjoying it so far! If you have criticism and suggestions, please don’t refrain from telling me! Tell me what you’d like to see more of, less of and what your predictions are! I love seeing this kind of stuff! Anyways, now onto the story.

I laid in my bed for a couple of minutes, processing what was going on. Did… did I just have a nightmare? It definitely seemed very real but… nightmares usually do, don’t they? I looked over at my alarm clock. It was around 7:15 AM, two days after my hangout session with Undyne and Alphys.

Yes, I had a nightmare… A horrible, horrible nightmare… I decided to get up for now; there was no way I would be able to keep sleeping after this horror. The picture of the dusty street still lingered in my mind, filling me with horrible dread.

…Food… Maybe a nice breakfast could make me stop thinking about this. Yeah, a bowl of cereal, a slice of bread with some Nutella… Yeah, I definitely was in the mood for that.

I slowly got up and went towards the kitchen. There, I went through my fridge and several cabinets. Sans really did a good job at fixing everything. The table was as good as new and he even replaced every single broken pot and plate.

Well, there was milk and Nutella in my fridge, and bread and cereal were in a cabinet next to it. I quickly made myself something to eat.

…Yeah, that was good. The sugar and chocolate definitely helped to calm my nerves a little bit. Oh god, this was one of the worst dreams I’ve ever had… and it all even seemed so real, as if it was something that could happen at any time… Now I felt extra bad for ignoring that kid’s problems just two days ago. Next time I’ll see that kid being harassed… I mean, if there’s a next time I wouldn’t just stand around. I promised myself that I would help.

Eventually I ate up. Well. That was okay. I looked at the clock. It was almost 8:30 AM. Huh, so, what now? Maybe some TV…? Just then, almost as if some sort of cosmic force read my thoughts, my phone vibrated. It was a text by Papyrus. Of course, only a skeleton like him would would be up and ready that early in the morning on a Monday.

“Human! I just had a great Idea!”

“Hey Pap. What is it?”

“Undyne, Alphys Sans, You and of course Me should all hang out together, later! What do you think?”

“Oh! Sure, sounds like a great Idea!”

“Of course, the great Papyrus only has great Ideas! So let’s meet up at the park later! And bring some food!”

“Okay! See ya there!”

I put my phone down and smiled. Well, now it seemed like the day would be great after all!... Wait… I somehow had the strangest case of deja-vu…

 

A little later, I was on my way to my hangout session with Papyrus, Sans, Undyne and Alphys… I had some food in my backpack, some sandwiches and two bottles of soda. But for some reason, this whole thing felt… weird. As if this had happened before. Well… this… sure seemed similar to my dream, didn’t it?

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I just dreamt that I was going to meet up with all of my monster friends and now it actually happens… Heck, I even went the same way! However, that wasn’t too surprising since I needed to go this way in order to get to the park…

…Mh… Okay, maybe that was just a weird coincidence. Of course. I mean, I surely couldn’t have predicted the future with this weird nightmare, could I? …Or maybe I actually DID predict the future…? Wait, no, what am I thinking, that’s impossi-

My thoughts were cut short by a familiar sounding voice shouting. “Y-yo, L-listen! I’ve told you guys enough times to leave me alone! I-I’m going to tell on you!” I completely froze. I could’ve sworn that my heart stopped for a second there. No… No that’s impossible! How is that possible?!

Almost as if it did it on its own, my head slowly turned to the right. And there I saw it. It was the monster kid from a few days ago, surrounded by three human boys; two of which looked older than the boy from before.

I couldn’t believe it. This was exactly like in my dream! The same boy, the same setting, the same scene!... So… if that’s indeed what’s happening right now, then a red car should drive by at… this very moment!

I looked towards the right… A red car drove by, and the driver looked like they saw everything. This was absolutely crazy. I felt like I was experiencing a glitch in the matrix or something. How is that possible?! This is exactly the same situation like in my dream!

I simply stood there in bewilderment and utter confusion. Was this some sort of weird dream loop? Another dream, maybe? I pinched my cheek. It hurt. Yup, I was awake. As I stood there staring, I noticed that things unfolded in the very same way they did in my dream…

…A bigger one of the kids grabbed the monster kid, and they started slapping them again. I cringed. Watching this happen again was even worse than the first time! This went on for a while until they stopped… Oh no. I knew what was going to happen now. I looked to my right.

The truck. It was the truck that hit the monster kid in my dream. It still was pretty far away but… it was getting closer quickly. I looked back at the kids. The boy who was holding the monster kid smiled in a creepy fashion… oh no.

I… I couldn’t let this happen. Without thinking, I ran onto the street as quickly as I could and extended my arm towards the kids. “STOP THIS!” was all I could shout… But it was too late. The boy pushed the monster onto the street… 

…No… No I won’t let them die!

I was DETERMINED to save them! I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. My lung was burning and my heart felt like it was going to burst, but I just had to do something! The world around me seemed to slow down and come to a halt. My only focus was on the monster kid.

As soon as I was able to, I jumped forward and grabbed them. I then spun in a way so that I would land on my back. We both landed on the sidewalk. The truck driver hit his breaks as hard as he could and came to a stop. He was looking at us through the window of his truck with an expression that seemed to be a mix of worry and confusion. And then he drove off again.

 

I looked at the monster kid in my arms. They looked at me with utter amazement. I swear I could see a sparkle in their eyes. I then looked up towards the group of boys that were tormenting this poor thing. They looked at me with a mix of surprise and fear. I slowly let the monster kid out of arms and got up. It took me a moment to catch my breath.

“…Listen here, you brats…” I said, exhaustedly. I still had to recover a little from my sprint. “If I see you around this kid EVER again, then you all are in big trouble! Are we clear?!” The boys responded with a fearful expression and ran away. Figured as much; acting all high and mighty when there’s someone weaker around, but when an adult comes along, they become gigantic wimps.

I turned back towards the monster kid. “Hey kid, are you okay?” They stared at me with same big eyes and an open mouth from before. And then they finally said something. “Y-yo! T-that was amazing! Y-you saved me! Like a superhero!” Oh gee.

I scratched the back of my head embarrassedly. “O-oh, well, I wouldn’t put it that way… I uh, just did what’s right…” Oh boy… This was a little weird. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a bit flattered. The kid had a gigantic smile plastered over his face.

“Really though! That was AWESOME! I didn’t even see you come!” They giggled happily. “Yo, thanks for that!”

I chuckled in response. “Hehe… Thanks.” I said. “So, what’s your name? I’d at least know how the kid I just helped is called!”

“Oh! My name’s Kid!” I looked at the monster kid in for a few seconds in surprise… Who names their child ‘kid’? Well, monster parents it seems, but still. I then introduced myself to them.

“Oh that’s a nice name! I’ll be sure to remember it.” Said kid and smiled. It was in that moment that my watch let out a beep. I looked at the time. It was exactly twelve o’ clock.

“Oh. Well, Kid, I need to go now! Sorry, I am supposed to go meet some of my friends today.” I affectionately patted them on their shoulder. “You should probably go now, too!” The monster kid nodded in response and we said our goodbyes. They darted off, probably to home. I sighed. Wow, well, that certainly was… an experience.

I looked back at the street that I ran over… And that was when I noticed something rather surprising… This street was a lot… broader than I previously thought. In fact it was so broad, I was surprised I was able to make it to the kid in time… Although I was mildly confused about how a little bit of willpower and adrenaline made me so fast, I shrugged it off and got going. 

 

Eventually, I arrived at the park. I wasn’t here often, so I forgot how nice of a place this was during summer! I saw some families having picnics, a few people walking their dogs, some teenagers on a half-pipe nearby… The whole park was filled with a mix of both humans and monsters. And then, I saw who I was looking for.

Papyrus, Sans, Alphys and Undyne were all sitting on a picnic blanket on the grass underneath a tree, a few steps away from the path. Sans was having a nap it seems, as he was leaning on the tree. Huh, so we really were having a picnic. Just when Papyrus noticed I was there, he started waving at me.

“HEEEY! HUMAN! OVER HERE!” He shouted with a big smile and waved. I smiled and waved back, as I went over to them.

I sat down next to them onto the picnic blanket. “Hey Papyrus! Hey everyone. Sorry that I am a bit late, I got wrapped up in something. How are you all?”

Undyne laughed in response. “Now that you’re here, we’re great! We can finally start the picnic!” She patted my shoulder. It hurt a little. “U-uh, so, what did you bring?” Alphys asked.

I smiled and put my backpack on the ground. “Oh, nothing much. I just brought some sandwiches and soda. And you guys?”

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BROUGHT MY FABLED SPAGHETTY!” Papyrus said with a proud expression on his face. Oh boy. I looked over to Alphys. She looked a bit nervous.

“W-well I…” She looked inside the plastic bag she had besides her. “…I brought some P-pocky… instant noodles… a pot… some water… and an electric stove I could power with magic…” I looked at her and gave her a sheepish smile… Well… Instant noodles. That’s… okay. Not great, but okay… I definitely would eat this instead of Papyrus’ cooking any day.

I then looked at Undyne. “Me? Ah, well, I just brought some tea, cookies, pastries and all that…” Huh. I wouldn’t have thought of Undyne being into that kind of stuff. Apparently, my surprise was visible, as she became more and more visibly nervous, the longer I looked at her. “U-uhm…! I mean, I AM TOUGH, I EAT NAILS FOR BREAKFAST, NGAAAHH!” 

“I-it’s okay, Undyne, I like tea and cookies! Those are great, no need to be embarrassed!” I tried my best to assure her that everything was okay, but it apparently made her even more embarrassed. She turned red and buried her face in her hands with a deep sight. Oh gee.

My eyes then darted over to Sans, who seemingly just woke up from his nap. “So, what did you bring?” I asked. Sans shrugged. “well kiddo, i brought a few bags of chips.” I rolled my eyes in response. Yup, Sans once again took the most low-effort option available. 

So, now, we were ready for this picnic, it seemed. This picnic was rather weird, because of the weird food choices, but fun nonetheless. While eating, we talked for a bit. 

“So, recently during gym class, Frisk got wrapped up in a fight with a boy from their class. But instead of fighting back, they just dodged every punch! And they even flirted with him! And guess what!” Undyne laughed. “Frisk, of course, won! Fuhuhuhu!” 

“NYEHEHE! YES, THIS IS HOW I KNOW THEM!” Papyrus said in response. “kid never changes.” Sans said with a deep chuckle. I felt a little left out, but thankfully, this was noticed by Papyrus.

“OH! OF COURSE! HUMAN, YOU HAVEN’T MET FRISK YET, HAVE YOU?” I shook my head in response.

“N-no, I haven’t, but I’d love to, of course!” I said. Papyrus crossed his arms. He seemed to be lost in thoughts.

“AH I SEE… WE REALLY SHOULD INTRODUCE YOU TO THEM! BUT WHEN’S A GOOD TIME?...” Papyrus was thinking about this for a moment, until Sans raised his voice. “hey, next week’s their birthday. i’m sure the kid won’t mind if we invite you with us.”

Hearing this, Papyrus gave me a bright smile. “OF COURSE! HUMAN, WHY DON’T YOU COME WITH US TO THEIR BIRTHDAY PARTY NEXT WEEK?”

Honestly, I was kind of taken by surprise, hearing this. However, I definitely wasn’t going to pass this opportunity up to meet one of monsterkinds greatest heroes so… “S-sure, I-I’d love to! I-”

I was interrupted by a beeping-sound, coming from Undyne’s direction. She looked at her phone and immediately got up. Alphys seemed to be a bit startled. “Ah! Papyrus, we were supposed to have out training session now! I completely forgot!”

Papyrus got up too. “NO WORRIES. WE’LL JUST DO IT HERE!” “Hey, that’s a GREAT Idea Papyrus! Fuhuhu!”

I looked over to Alphys. She sighed and face palmed. “Uh… do they do this often?” She nodded. “Y-yeah… sometimes even during cooking lessons.” That’s when I remembered what happened a few days ago. Yeah, they probably wrecked my kitchen that way.

Papyrus looked at me. For a moment, I was confused why. At least I was until he told me what he wanted.

“Oh! HUMAN, WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US?” Undyne looked at Papyrus for a moment in confusion, but then she seemed to like the Idea. She looked at me. “Oh, great idea! Yeah, come join us! It’ll be fun!”

I didn’t know what to say and just looked at both of them in silence for a few seconds, but then I finally got myself to say something. “U-uh, sure but it’s… uh… not dangerous, is it?” I heard Alphys speak up behind me.

“A-ah, well… Frisk sometimes joins their t-training sessions, and the worst they got was a few scratches, s-so you should b-be fine! But s-should something h-happen, I can help…” Ah gee… I quickly looked back at Papyrus. He looked at me with those puppy-dog eyes again. I sighed… I just can’t say no to that guy.

I went over to Papyrus and Undyne, scratching my head. “Uh so…,” I silently said. “…what do I need to do?”

“NOTHING MUCH. JUST TRY MOVING YOUR SOUL TO DODGE OUR ATTACKS. CONSIDERING THIS IS YOUR FIRST SPAR WITH A MONSTER, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE THEM EASIER TO DODGE.” Wait, Soul?

“Did… Did you just say I need to move my Soul?” I stared at them in disbelief. I mean, ever since Monsters came from the underground, it’s been proven that souls exist. But how do I move something so… ethereal? Undyne spoke up.

“Yeah! Magic attacks the Soul directly, so you obviously need to move it to dodge it. In a fight with a monster, it’ll get summoned out of your body and you can move it. Well, depending on which color it is.”

“So my soul has a… color?...” I still wasn’t entirely sure what to say. This seemed pretty dangerous… but I trusted them enough to not mention it. Although most of this seemed kind of outlandish. I mean come on, colorful souls?

“Yeah! Red Souls can move freely, Green Souls can shield against incoming attack, Blue Souls don’t float and need to jump over obstacles, yellow souls shoot non-lethal projectiles, orange souls don’t get damage as long as they move…” Undyne basically couldn’t stop talking. She must really like fighting humans; but I suppose if she’s a gym teacher, she does so regularly. “It just depends what virtue you, as a person, you value the most. Orange Souls are all about bravery, yellow souls about justice… They can take on a different color with certain magic though!”

Huh. Now I definitely was intrigued. I wondered what color my soul would be… definitely not orange, as I am not very brave… I took a deep breath.

“O-okay then… Let’s start, if you want!” I still was very nervous about all of this. Papyrus and Undyne on the other hand looked at each other with a big smile. The FIGHT had started.

 

I suddenly felt very weird. My entire body felt floaty and disconnected, almost like when you wake up from a nap that either was too short or too long. And then suddenly, I noticed something glowing in front of me, right in front of my chest. It was a glassy, glowing heart, resembling those on Valentine’s Day cards, in a pastel mint color. I looked back at Undyne and Papyrus. They looked mildly surprised.

“…Well, that’s new. Never saw a soul with that color before!” expressed Undyne as she inspected it closer. “Mh… It’s not quite cyan but also not quite green… It’s a mint-color at best! I wonder what this means…”

Huh… so that was my soul? I looked at it once more. It was strangely enticing to look at. Beautiful, even. It was slightly see-through and was radiating a weirdly cold warmth, if you can even describe it as such. My attention was reclaimed by Papyrus as he started to shout.

“WELL THEN, HUMAN! TRY DODGING MY ATTACK!” And with that, a white bone appeared to my left, slowly coming closer. In the meantime, my soul placed itself on something that can best be described as grey lines, floating in front of me. It was shaped like an X.

The moment the bone was almost near my soul, I tried moving it upwards. However, it started moving up diagonally on the upper right part of the X instead. Either way, whatever I did, it did what was intended and I dodged the Bone.

Now, it was Undyne’s turn. She conjured up a magical, glowing Spear. Oh boy. “Now, try dodging THIS!” She threw this spear directly at my soul. Thankfully, it was traveling at a rather slow speed.

Once again, the grey line appeared. Once again my Soul was stuck to it. This time, it was shaped like an O, with my soul being located at the very bottom. The spear was closing in and I tried moving my Soul out of the way. It moved alongside the left side of the O, to safety.

“IT SEEMS LIKE YOUR SOUL IS STUCK ON A LINE, EACH TIME IT’S ATTACKED!” Expressed Papyrus. Undyne nodded in response and gave me a big smile. “Reminds me of purple souls… but those have three lines, and all of ‘em are straight, all the time! That’s pretty cool!”

I scratched the back of my head and chuckled. “W-well, thank you! If you think so!”

We trained for some more time and I flawlessly dodged several more attacks. The line my soul traveled on always changed each round. One time it was an 8, one time a T, one time a Bone and the next time even a Spear! Alphys back at the tree even clapped when those last two happened. I do admit, it looked pretty cool. Even though I couldn’t influence this, it still filled me with happiness.

“Alright, just dodge this one last attack and let’s call it quits for today!” Undyne called and threw a last few spears at me.

 

This time, the line was shaped like a simple I. I dodged the first spear with ease by going up. I also dodged the next spear by going down again. However, the last few spears became hard to dodge. I dodged the first one. Okay. The second one, okay… However, once it came to the third, I noticed that it was frighteningly close to touching my Soul.

Oh no. I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from panicking. I knew this wouldn’t kill me, but this likely would hurt… Once again, adrenaline shot through my body and the world around me seemed to slow down. I quickly got my soul out of the way and time went its usual way. I heard clapping coming from both Undyne and Papyrus, as well from Alphys and heck, even Sans.

Undyne went over to me gave me a gigantic smile. I couldn’t help but smile with her. “Fuhuhu! That was quite amazing! You dodged this last spear like a pro! You sure have some great reflexes.”

I blushed a little. Honestly, I wasn’t really used to all of this praise. “Ahaha, gee, thank you!...”

“ANYWAYS, I PROPOSE WE SHOULD CLEAN UP FOR NOW AND GET GOING. I STILL NEED TO PREPARE DINNER!” And with that we started cleaning up.

 

By the time we cleaned what was left of the picnic up, Alphys and Undyne already left and said their goodbyes. It just was me and the skeleton brothers now. I just put my backpack back on when I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Papyrus.

“SO, HUMAN, BEFORE WE SAY GOODBYE, I WANTED TO SAY, DON’T FORGET FRISK’S BIRTHDAY PARTY NEXT WEEK!” Ah yes, the birthday party Sans and Papyrus invited me to. Almost forgot it after our little fight thing.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Just text me their address later, okay?” Papyrus nodded in response. “WELL THEN. HUMAN, I BID YOU GOODBYE!” He looked over to Sans, who, once again, appeared right next to me out of nowhere. “SANS, ARE YOU COMING?”

“yeah, just give me a sec’. just wanted to ask the kiddo here somethin’. go ahead, I’ll catch up.” “ALRIGHTY! WELL THEN, GOODBYE HUMAN!” And with that, Papyrus was off. Sans looked at me with his usual, big, goofy smile.

“honestly, kid, i’m impressed. didn’t know y’could dodge like that. seemed almost like some super hero or something.” There it was again. I shrugged.

“Heh, well, I didn’t know either. ” I sighed. “Honestly, I literally just panicked a bit and everything I could focus on was getting out of the way. It almost seemed like everything was going in slow motion and suddenly stopping.”

“…slow motion and stopping, huh?” Sans seemed to be in deep thoughts for a moment. He put his hands back into his pockets. “ah, well. it still was impressive. anyways, I’ll be seein’ ya kiddo.” And with that, Sans was gone.

Well, that was a bit weird… He almost seemed slightly worried… I… I tried my best not to worry about it too much… It probably was just my imagination. I started heading towards home, too.

I looked into the sky. It was blue, with only a few clouds floating along. It was only 3 PM and the day already managed to surprise me so many times… And for some reason, I felt as if there still were many more surprises to be had.


End file.
